# The Crystal Scrolls: a Crystal Space engine for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

> Reimplements the engine of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind on the Crystal Space 3D engine, loading the BSA and ESM files of an installed Morrowind with Tribunal and Bloodmoon. Plugins cover a BSA virtual file system, NIF mesh loading through niflib, terrain, skybox and game logic. The docs describe how NIF scene trees and animations are converted, how plugin reference IDs are remapped when several master files load, and list original Morrowind bugs with their causes, fixes and status in the engine.

- Type: Case study
- Targets: Game
- Category: Independent reconstruction cases
- Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
- Sources reviewed: 2026-11-09
- Added to the catalog: 2026-11-10
- Original resource: <https://sourceforge.net/projects/crystalscrolls/>
- Primary source: <https://sourceforge.net/p/crystalscrolls/code/93/tree/trunk/readme.txt>
- Catalog page: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/crystal-scrolls-case/>
- Record JSON: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/crystal-scrolls-case/record.json>
- Chinese version: [简体中文](https://awesomerea.org/zh/resources/crystal-scrolls-case/index.md)

## Requirements & limits

- **Prerequisites:** Requires an installed Morrowind with Tribunal and Bloodmoon, or a Morrowind folder holding the Data Files BSA and ESM files.
- **Prerequisites:** Building requires Visual Studio 2008 Express SP1, the Crystal Space 1.9 development source at revision 35671 and its Windows dependency package.
- **Limits:** Releases are development snapshots, and the docs call the NIF animation code still a mess.
- **License:** Own code under the GNU LGPL v3; Crystal Space under the GNU LGPL v2; niflib under a modified BSD licence.

## Primary sources

1. <https://sourceforge.net/p/crystalscrolls/code/93/tree/trunk/readme.txt>
2. <https://sourceforge.net/p/crystalscrolls/code/93/tree/trunk/docs/Hacking.txt>
3. <https://sourceforge.net/p/crystalscrolls/code/93/tree/trunk/docs/details-references.txt>
4. <https://sourceforge.net/p/crystalscrolls/code/93/tree/trunk/docs/Morrowind%20bugs.txt>
5. <https://sourceforge.net/p/crystalscrolls/code/93/tree/trunk/docs/building.txt>
6. <https://sourceforge.net/p/crystalscrolls/code/93/tree/trunk/license.txt>

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## About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.
Original editorial content: MIT. Linked projects, papers and assets retain their own rights and licenses.